Means To An End: The Problem With Julian Assange

The organisation of Wikileaks itself is a work of its own that deserves the credit it has acquired over the years. Some good has been done in exposing corrupt organisations and knowing simply that there is such a facility had given millions hope that there would be a sense of transparency, that the true meaning of democracy in its purist form is accomplished. Unfortunately, I sit in the forgotten camp. One of the groups that Wikileaks never did anything for regardless of the countless people in my camp I had encouraged to submit. It was a very unattractive issue and involves the "F" word. Not the word you might think. No, its a womens rights issue and one that can mean the life or death of not only women, but their children too. I realised at the time that I had called on others to submit, was a time that the the war logs were released and publicity had gone through the roof. Or so I thought.

It was before stuff came out about his views on women and stalking his sons mother through the courts for ten years only to lose interest in him one year later. Only a few references about her are on the web, which include "dangerous stalker" and having to change her name. In his first book, he describes being shocked to find her and his son gone when he returned home. There of course might be millions of explanations as to what happened and why, but the more I find out about what happened to the women that got close to Assange, the more deeply disturbing it becomes. The few that have spoken out against him whom have been reasonably close to him seemed to also maintain that consistency that there is something to fear about Assange. Daniel had stated in his book that Assange had threatened his life, whilst Journalists had made consistent complaints about hacking into their email accounts. A string of behaviours that resonate the very patterns of the 'psycho' that his mother was running away from. I wonder what he did to stop the others from speaking out. It seems as though this is not the first time.

I would like to hope that this is not the case, that the fear that these people around him were of the siege mentality, but even in his own words, I am not convinced. In public, this man asks for us to consider his life of great importance pending a trial that could mean extradition to Sweden and then US. But why did he not consider the lives of women whom were in just as much danger just as important? The answer is of course in his own words. Just recently, an angry women yelled out at a protest, "misogynist pig!" and his response on twitter was that this is an abomination of the media's "libel". Yet, what has Assange or Wikileaks done for the plight of women? What has he done to stop violence against women, the same issue that he was subjected to as a child. Issues where women are subjected to horrific treatment seems to lay camouflaged in the backdrop of war-torn countries, whilst the men continue to fight each-other. We have been so alienated by these issues, that I wonder why women if at all should even take part of anything anymore. Even the left proves to be taken over by men to the extent that there is no space for women to share views that are just as important as mens. So many of my own unique ideas have been shared and accredited to men, but when it means sharing an equal space in voicing or implenting them, we are coercively dismissed or ignored.

Julian Assange is a great example of this, where he is surrounded by "token women" but seldom gives them the credit that they deserve as equal participants in the cause that not just he but everyone has a stake in. At one stage, he even goes as far to state that "Privacy... especially a mans privacy is important". But womens privacy is not? Is this what justified hacking into women's computers? It was never really stated why the SMS's from the Swedish women were rejected as evidence, but we can all safely assume that by the repeated history of his hacking patterns, that he hacked into their phones too. So, not only are women already at a structural disposition with hundreds of years ingrained in the human culture of men ruling that seeps throughout the core of religion, laws, philosophy and even resonates within the human psych, that now we have to contend with being at a disposition on the internet that by just simply meeting someone could have such a devastating impact. If Julian was as noble as he says he is, he would have taken into account the disposition that women are in and left them alone.